...'Yes you do!" It is interesting how many organisations that are
not principally focused on children will say that they don't actually work with
children. Just one look at their annual reports usually dispels this myth -
glossy pictures of children tend to feature quite highly! OK, so they work with
communities. Last time I looked at any given community there were usually at
least 50% of the members under the age of 18!
You can't do international relief and development work and not work with
children. Or, if by that you mean that you never consider children, well that
is possible and possibly what you mean, but that should be seen as completely
inappropriate.
Working in aid and development normally entails a commitment to quality
programming and aid effectiveness, and if you are not considering the situation
of children, their needs and rights including their rights to protection, then
you are not fully addressing the reality of your beneficiaries.
It is also true that if you work with children then you will inevitably
encounter issues of child abuse and child protection in one way or another.
Again, all agencies need to think about their responsibilities to keep children
safe and to take steps to meet these responsibilities. You should look at the
contexts you are operating in, the nature of your work and the specific risks
and issues that impact on children and their safety and make appropriate
provisions to address these.
Ensuring children are fully taken account of in your assessments and
analyses, project planning and design, is an important element
in delivering quality programmes that tackle the needs of the community as
a whole. You also need to put in place clear policies, procedures and
guidance and support capacity building of staff and others to ensure that you
achieve a real focus on children and on their protection.